"The mission of the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools is to advance excellence in education through the process of accreditation. Accreditation promotes continual school improvement leading to greater student achievement."

• Accredited schools are members of one of the nation’s six regional accreditation associations.
• Accredited schools must meet rigorous standards and report progress on an annual basis.
• Accreditation promotes self-regulation by requiring schools to participate in an ongoing school improvement process.
• Accredited schools assure the public the accountability for their tax dollars.
• Regional accreditation provides a vehicle to meet state accountability laws and NCLB.
• Regional accreditation protocols help schools collect and analyze the same data that is needed for these state and federal laws.
• Regional accreditation external reviews help schools stay on track and focused on improving student performance.
• Regional accreditation helps schools use multiple measures to gauge student progress.
• Accreditation provides self-regulation.
• Regional Accreditation provides the structure and tools to align multiple assessments with curriculum and staff development.
• The regional accreditation process is teacher driven.
• Regional accreditation is the education profession’s method of self-evaluation and quality assurance.
• Accreditation is bottom up instead of top down.
• Regional accreditation adds value within a local community as its schools are recognized for meeting high standards.
• It’s simple really; state and federal laws tell schools what while NAAS shows schools how.
• Students are assured that credits are earned in an accredited school.
• Credits earned in a regionally accredited institution are accepted by all other NAAS schools.